BJP woman leader Sobha Surendran (L) and senior party leader from Palakkad district C Krishnakumar (R).
Credit: X/@SobhaBJP, @ckkbjp
Thiruvananthapuram: A tug of war is on in the BJP in Kerala for the Palakkad assembly seat though the by-poll is yet to be announced as the saffron party is pinning high hopes in the seat.
BJP firebrand woman leader Sobha Surendran and senior party leader from Palakkad district C Krishnakumar are learnt to be eyeing the seat.
Hoarding welcoming Sobha to Palakkad already appeared amidst reports that Krishnakumar, who is close to party state president K Surendran, was trying to secure the seat.
By-poll has become imminent after Congress MLA Shafi Parambil got elected to the Lok Sabha. At present BJP did not have any MLAs in Kerala. Though BJP's O Rajagopal won the 2016 Assembly polls from Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, the saffron party could not retain its maiden seat.
The BJP came second at Palakkad in the 2021 and 2016 assembly elections. In 2021 'Metro man' E Sreedharan, who was BJP candidate, lost to Congress's Shafi Parambil by only 3,859 votes. In 2016 BJP's Sobha came second at Palakkad.
Though she lost to Parambil by 17,483 votes, the saffron party's vote share drastically increased to 29.08 percent from 19.86 percent in 2011. This indeed gives an edge for Sobha at Palakkad.
Moreover, Sobha had also earned the good will of being a good fighter with her strong contest against AICC general secretary K C Venugopal at Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency in this election. Though she came third, she secured 28 percent votes. She was also runner-up in 2021 assembly election at Kazhakoottam in Thiruvananthapuram.
Krishnakumar, who is a state general secretary of BJP, came second in Palakkad's adjacent seat Malampuzha in 2021 and 2016. He could only finish in third place in this Lok Sabha poll at Palakkad but secured 24 percent votes for BJP. He is also considered as a powerful leader of the party in Palakkad.
Sreedharan told Deccan Herald that he won't be in the electoral fray anymore owing to advanced age factor. He expressed high hopes of BJP winning the seat.
"BJP has got high chances this time. People of Palakkad already realised that it was a blunder to elect Parambil as he did nothing for the constituency," said the 'Metro man'.
Both Sobha and Krishnakumar openly stated that they would work for the victory of the candidate being decided by the party.
Meanwhile, there were also reports that those close to Sobha had sent petitions to the party national leadership raising various allegations against Krishnakumar.